Amazon is investing in an online grocery startup, Giant is using video, and self-checkout is getting better this week.
According to a report from TechCrunch published on Tuesday, Amazon has invested in an Indian D2C company called FreshToHome, which sells meat and fish online for delivery to consumers’ homes in India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (Feb. 21).
The D2C company’s $104 million Series D round was led by Amazon’s Indian startup investment arm, the Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund.
A spokesperson told the media that the Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund’s $250 million goal is to support “the next generation of innovative, technology-enabled companies led by visionary founders.” We think the management team at FreshToHome, led by Shan Kadavil, has done a great job of building a supply chain that is enabled by technology and has the scalability to help farmers and fishermen.
Amazon is making this change as part of a larger initiative to increase its market share of perishable goods, following its success in center-aisle grocery categories.
Before this month’s investment, Amazon had said on a call with analysts discussing the company’s fourth quarter 2022 financial results that it believed fresh food must be largely the domain of brick-and-mortar retailers.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy admitted on the call that the company lacked a sizable share of the perishables market. Jassy argued that brick-and-mortar locations were necessary to compete effectively in this area.
Alcoholic Beverage Sales at The GIANT Co. Benefit from Video Commerce
The Giant Company, a supermarket chain headquartered in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and owned by Ahold Delhaize, is experimenting with video advertising using in-store technology.
In a press release sent to PYMNTS, A3 Media announced its partnership with the retailer to implement its Social Shelf technology, which uses QR codes to play media content such as videos when customers scan them.
In a statement, A3 CEO Frank Gussoni said, “Shoppers now have the opportunity to choose the brands they want to learn more about while making purchasing decisions.” To address customers, I can think of no better time. They are asking for brand details in the store.
The rollout is the result of a year of testing by The Giant Company.
It’s not just the supermarket that uses videos to boost revenue. The Fresh Market, a grocery store chain with headquarters in North Carolina and locations in 159 stores across 22 states, recently announced an expansion of its partnership with video commerce solution provider Firework.
The grocer’s chief marketing officer, Kevin Miller, said in a statement, “Overall, the combined viewership of our first four Firework-powered livestreams exceeded 2 million views, and we saw conversion rates of the special occasion meals featured in the shoppable videos that were over 300% greater than our traditional digital advertising results.”
Humanizing the Familiar Self-Checkout Process
Technology companies in the grocery industry are using customer data to enhance the self-checkout kiosk experience, which was inspired by retailers’ efforts to tailor the digital services customers access from their own devices.
On Tuesday, Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions said that this year’s NGA Show, which is put on by the National Grocers Association, it will show how personalized shopping can be.
In a statement, Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions CEO Rance Poehler emphasized the importance of retailers’ having the flexibility to respond quickly to changing customer needs in order to foster genuine customer loyalty. We offer a comprehensive suite of hardware, self-service, and software solutions to retailers.
There is undeniably a huge need for self-service checkout options. Eighty-five percent of retail customers say self-checkout is faster than waiting for a cashier, and sixty percent prefer self-checkout to interact with a cashier, according to data cited in the February edition of PYMNTS’ Retail Tracker® series, “Innovating the Retail Checkout Experience,” created in collaboration with LS Retail.
